Battle of Ads Is Underway

The footage is startling: Grim-faced Marines carrying body bags amid the wreckage of a Vietnam-bound transport plane that crashed into Loma Ridge moments after leaving El Toro in 1965, killing 84 servicemen and crew members.

The message from airport opponents is clear: It could happen again if a commercial airfield is built at the now-retired El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

A message of a different sort landed in Orange County mailboxes last week. The glossy flier depicts a convict behind the bars of a darkened jail cell and warns that criminals could gain early release from overcrowded cells if voters make it harder to build new jails. “Protect our schools and neighborhoods,” it says.

The timing isn’t coincidental. On March 7, voters will decide the fate of Measure F, a ballot initiative that would require passage by two-thirds of voters countywide before an airport, sprawling jail or hazardous waste landfill could be built near residential areas. The campaigning is heating up now, to coincide with the availability of absentee ballots--votes considered key to the election’s outcome.

Neither side has an easy task in its attempt to sway voters, which is why some critics say the campaign efforts are resorting to “scare tactics” to get their messages across.

Measure F supporters must convey that a “yes” vote would kill plans for recycling El Toro as an international airport. Measure F opponents must make it clear that a “no” vote gives a green light to the airport.

And if that’s not confusing enough, voters may also have trouble figuring out who is behind various campaign efforts.

Many of the anti-airport messages are being financed by cities which, under state law, cannot use public resources to take positions in elections. The commercial showing the crash’s aftermath, for example, is funded in part by South County cities. Being shown on cable television across Orange County, it never mentions Measure F.

Although the opposing campaign doesn’t face the same restrictions because of private funding, the flier that arrived in mailboxes last week never mentions that its backers are the chief proponents of an El Toro airport. Why?

“We feel very strongly that this is a jail issue,” said Bruce Nestande, spokesman for Citizens for Jobs and the Economy. “Every family is affected by public safety, but not every family is going to be affected by the airport. It’s clearly the dominant issue at play.”

What does this mean for voters?

They can expect more eye-catching images on an issue that most already have made up their minds about. A slight majority of residents oppose an airport at El Toro, and that position has hardly changed in the past three years, according to annual surveys by UC Irvine pollsters.

Election results tell a different story. Orange County voters have twice endorsed an El Toro airport.

Len Kranser, spokesman for Citizens for Safe and Healthy Communities, which supports Measure F, said jails were included in the ballot initiative’s language to reform the county’s track record of ignoring residents and moving forward with disruptive public projects.

But Measure F critics, including many who back an airport at El Toro, stress the initiative’s potential to halt plans by the Board of Supervisors for an expansion of the James A. Musick Branch Jail in Lake Forest.

If the initiative passes, the county would be forced to build smaller jails in more locations throughout the county, Measure F critics say.

In fact, Sheriff Mike Carona--who opposes Measure F--is scrambling to get the Board of Supervisors to approve a future jail site before the election.

Both sides defended their campaigns and accused the opposition of employing scare tactics.

“Their polling probably tells them that they’ll lose on the airport issue, and their best chance is to scare people about the jail issue,” Kranser said.

If using the image of criminals is a scare tactic, then displaying television footage of dead Marines is even more so, Nestande charged. The Marines ultimately blamed the 1965 crash on pilot error.

“It’s despicable,” Nestande said. “It shows their desperation.”

Airport foes have defended the spots, saying they highlight real safety concerns about the northern departure route at El Toro, which county planners said would be used for about one-third of all takeoffs at an El Toro airport.

Officials with the Air Line Pilots Assn., the nation’s largest pilots’ union, and the Allied Pilots Assn., representing American Airlines pilots, have balked at plans to send planes north over Loma Ridge and east over the Santa Ana Mountains.

Such safety concerns will also be highlighted in an upcoming series of cable advertisements paid for by foes of an airport in South County.

All the anti-airport messages recommend support for the alternative Millennium Plan, which would turn the 4,700-acre base into a mix of homes, businesses, classrooms, museums and open space.

So far, the anti-airport cable ads are the only ones being aired. Nestande said his group intends to counter with ads of its own.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

El Toro Watch:

A look at how both sides are trying to win Orange County voters over.

Pro-Measure F commercial:

What it says:

Archived footage shows a somber El Toro 1965 crash scene as the voiceover warns viewers that an El Toro Airport would use the same departing runway: “If it’s too dangerous for the Marines, isn’t it too dangerous for you?”

What it doesn’t:

Investigators blamed the crash on pilot error, not runway configuration. The county’s aviation experts say the same runway will be safe for commercial aircraft.

Anti-Measure F mailer:

What it says:

Passage would block the construction of new jails, leading to violent convicts being released from overcrowded cells and the expansion of smaller jails “in cities like yours.” The flier urges: “Criminals belong behind bars . . . Not on our streets.”

What it doesn’t:

Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona has eliminated early jail releases, and is working to find a new maximum security jail site before the election.

Orange County voters go to the polls March 7 to decide the fate of Measure F.

If passed, the initiative would require two-thirds of countywide voters to approve any projects involving airports, hazardous-waste landfills and jails with more than 1,000 beds, if the projects were slated to be built within a half-mile of homes. Supporters are urging the measure’s passage as a way to block the proposed construction of a commercial airport at the retired El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Opponents say the measure’s passage would make it nearly impossible to build needed public works and public safety projects--like jails.